


From Here On Out

by BookshelfPassageway



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5725558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookshelfPassageway/pseuds/BookshelfPassageway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emmett Brown was stranded in the past once again. This time, however, it looked as though he'd be a little less alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Here On Out

  
  
The wind rushed past, pulling at hair and clothes as if to try to draw the lovers’ attention to the fact that they were traveling in some unknown direction, and very quickly at that.

Neither of them really seemed to care.

It was only the colossal crash and subsequent explosion that pulled them out of their mutual captivation. Emmett put a foot down, dragging it across the dry dirt, pulling the hoverboard to a stop. He craned his neck to look out over towards the canyon, as Clara turned herself in his arms to stand herself upright and look as well.

“Emmett…”

No response.

“Emmett?”

“Hm?” He started.

“That was… That was your only way back. Wasn’t it?”

A slow, toothy smile spread across the scientist’s face. He closed his eyes and starting making some sort of funny noise, which slowly escalated into unrestrained laughter.

Clara tilted her head back away from him a little, confused. “Emmett you’re… Stuck here…”

“I know!” He whooped, grabbing her arms, and grinning at her. “We’re-… Ack!” The unbalanced weight of two people in two different postures was something that the hoverboard, in a moment, decided it should be rid of. It tipped it’s passengers into the dirt and drifted lazily away.

“But that’s hardly what you were hoping for. Oof…” Clara sat up a little dazedly, blinking hard. “So why are you…?”

The snickering continued.

“…Emmett?”

“You’re back!” He sat up in one fluid motion. “You’re back, I’m here, we’re both alive and we both just jumped off of a moving locomotive! And we’re in in 1885!”

Clara looked down, and started giggling despite herself as well. It was a little infectious. And, apparently, needed after… Golly, so much had happened she didn’t really know how to categorize it! Whatever… All of this was, however, it’d clearly wound their nerves up far too tightly.

Emmett scrambled up to his feet, and began chasing after the stray hoverboard.

“Ah-eehee… A-and you’re from the future!” Clara yelled after him.

“A hundred years!” He called, before trotting back, the pink board tucked under one arm. He stuck out a hand and pulled her up onto her feet again, before hugging her, tightly. “And you came back…” He whispered.

“Hmmhmm… I guess I did…” She returned the embrace, nuzzling into him before turning her head up towards his.

They locked eyes, close enough to feel the other one’s breath, before suddenly, something clicked in Clara’s mind. “What happened to Mr. Eastwood?”

“…Who?”

 “Clint, your friend?”

Emmett stayed silent a moment, before starting. “Great _Scott!”_

Still holding hands, they raced off towards the cliff’s edge. The train wreckage smoldered far below.

Emmett held up the hoverboard to try to block the sun, squinting down. The handhold tightened.

“Did he…?”

“I think I heard the time barrier break…” He muttered, letting his arm drop. “Marty should’ve made it… Though I’d have to go down there to be entirely sure…”

Clara looked over at him. “Marty?”

“Ah… Clint Eastwood… He had to adopt a pseudonym since he had family back in this time period. You know the McFlys?”

“Not especially, no, but I’ve heard the name.”

Emmett shook his head, and sighed. “Anyway… Again, in all likelihood he’s perfectly fine, as I don’t see any parts of the car down there. Fortunately it’s of a very reflective construction. Though I can’t really check up on it until everything down there cools down… I’m sure once news about this reaches town, Strickland will send some people to go check it out… I’ll go with them but all in all it should just tell me what I already know.”

Another pause. “That train… Didn’t you…?”

“Steal it? Yes. Heh…”

“Would anyone know it was you?”

“I’m not entirely sure…” He admitted. “But I did say it wasn’t so much a holdup as it was a necessity in the name of science.” He gave a shrug

Clara gave an amused “Hmf.” and leaned against his side. Emmett took a deep breath, rubbing his thumb across her hand, and leaned his head into hers. His heart was still racing from the intensity of earlier, but yet at the same time he was oddly tranquil.

Concern about Marty pricked at him, of course, but he was pretty sure that the train had made it up to speed. Checking the bottom of the ravine would likely reveal no trace of the time machine, nor of it’s passenger. Everything was simply said and done, and a new and different problem filtered in towards his attention.

“I have absolutely no idea what happens next…” Breathed Emmett.

“Neither do I…” Replied Clara. “I was planning to leave town and then-…”

“I was planning to leave the century.”

Clara chuckled, leaning a little harder. “First of all I think we have some catching up to do.”

“I’d like that.”

“Though even then…”

“Hard to find a place to start?”

“Something like that.”

He sighed. “Well. First off my name is still Emmett L. Brown.”

“Well.” Said Clara. “That’s a relief. …What’s the L?”

“Lathrop.”

“Hm. I don’t think I’ve heard that one ever before… Is it a common name in the future?”

“Not in the slightest I’m afraid.”

“Hehee…”

He took a step back, away from Clara and the edge of the ravine, their still-linked hands pulling her to face him now. He shifted the hoverboard into a more stable position, and held out his other hand to her. “We have a start at least.” He said.

“That’s true.” She accepted it, walking forwards with him as he continued to step back. “Where are we going?”

Emmett shrugged. “Somewhere. Back to town, probably…”

“Probably a good direction.”

“I’m a scientist, I know these things.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Although you’re a teacher, so you’re probably equally qualified.”

“Equally?”

“Maybe moreso.”

“Hm.”

“Hm?”

“Town.”

“Town?”

“Town. We’ll tell someone about the train, and then I’d like to see your workshop again.”

“I think that seems to be very sound.”

They both slowed to a stop, still holding hands. They looked each other over, and tentatively took a step inwards.

“But are you… Sure that you’re alright with having to stay?” Asked Clara, looking up at him.

Emmett blinked. “I… I think I am… I mean, for several months I’d resigned myself that I wouldn’t be going back. Really it was an incredibly short span for which the notion was even an option and it’s not as though I’d have to set up all new… Infrastructure…” He trailed off, looking back down at Clara.

“More than alright.” He said, finally. “It’s almost like a relief, actually…”

The teacher swung their arms slightly. “Well… I’m glad for that…” She said, quietly. “Since, well, you were the one to come back for me on the train…”

The inventor shook his head. “If you’re asking me if I regret that I’m afraid I have to say that I don’t. I…” He paused, considering his next words. This was all very sudden, to the point it might make the very definition of sudden reconsider itself.

But he still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was right. Like some newly-discovered constant of the universe. Something somehow retroactively familiar.

“I love you too…”

Niether was fully aware of how they ended up where they were next. Some combination of falling and of magnetism, perhaps. Emmett’s head spun like the Earth, and Clara… Clara was nothing less than the galaxy itself…

They broke the kiss eventually. For whatever time and eventually were worth anymore. The two pressed their foreheads together and chuckled softly at each other.

“Where were we going again?” Asked Emmett, a little dazed.

“Town I think.” Clara slowly let go of him and began to walk.

“Town… Yes, that was where.” He stayed frozen where he was, until he felt the tug of his hand she’d taken up again, and he took a couple long, bouncing strides to catch up.

He picked up swinging their arms together again as they walked, beginning to banter over small details, like Clara’s middle name or twentieth-century transport.  
From here on out there was nothing but open-ended unknowns, but somehow they both knew that from here on out, whatever was going to happen was going to turn out alright.


End file.
